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Tom Kelly
HousingZone: Your Web site prominently displays your environmental vision. What terminology do you use to describe this to customers? Are you a green remodeler? Environmentally friendly? Healthy? Sustainable? Kelly: We probably use all of those things when we talk about building. Green projects is maybe the term we use most commonly. Certainly things like using sustainable design and building techniques. We hand out a little pamphlet called the Neil Kelly Environmental Vision that has a history of the things we've done. That gives you a flavor of what we call the Neil Kelly sustainability initiatives. HousingZone: Some say the word green has a sort of negative connotation these days. How do you deal with people who say, "I don't want to put green building products into my home"? Kelly: We don't get a push back from clients saying, "We don't want green products." We get a market segment that says, "We prioritize green products. We'll pay a little more." There are those who say, "We'd like to have green products, but we don't want to pay more." When you emphasize sustainability, you adopt a lot of the products that don't cost a lot more or cost about the same. And then you offer your clients who choose to emphasize sustainability products that may cost more but are a good alternative. And, of course, you have to look at energy efficiency and say, "We pay more now, but what's the life-cycle cost? What's the payback on energy efficiency and so on?" HousingZone: How receptive are people to that, when you detail it for them: "You're going to pay a little more now, but here's what it will save you in the long run"? Do they get that? Kelly: Yes, within reason. No matter what, in the world of remodeling, budget limitations almost always exist. In 99 out of 100 projects we do, that last 1% doesn't have that as a priority. But they're pretty rare, at least in our market. HousingZone: Do people come to your company because you are a "green remodeler," or do they come to you because you are a remodeler and you also happen to incorporate green practices? Kelly: We are the best-known remodeler in the Portland metro area, and the largest by a lot. And we have fairly significant brand recognition besides our interest in green. We do get a portion of clientele who come to us and specifically say, "We came to you because we understand you do green remodeling." Do I believe it's the silver-bullet marketing thing that makes us successful? No. It's a piece of what makes us successful. Different markets have different levels of interest. Our market happens to have a fairly high interest in green, sustainable remodeling. But we've also helped educate the market. I don't want to sound egotistical, but we have. So we've helped increase that interest, too. Somewhere in there is reality. A lot of market studies show that people do business with companies that they trust, that they believe give back to the community, that are responsible -- all those kinds of things. And sustainability and green is just one piece of all that. From our perspective, it's a long-term, brand-building investment. It's just one piece of many things. HousingZone: You build only about one new custom home a year. What are some of the big differences between remodeling and new construction in terms of green building? Kelly: The only one that really jumps out, and is a place where one can be pretty effective from a sustainability perspective, is in the demolition phase. There's the concept of deconstruction as opposed to demolition. Certainly, in recent years, we've become much more conscious about that, reusing a lot of materials. Fifteen years ago, if we reused the 2x4s that we tore out in the demolition phase of a project, the client might even get mad at us. Now we bring that up as a place where we can actually save a little money and be more responsible through using material that's just fine, that was already in the building. We used to do all the demolition and deconstruction ourselves. A local nonprofit company now does that for us. They actually resell the materials they take out into the lower-income housing market. HousingZone: Do customers come to you with specific ideas, or do they just say, "I want to save money on utility bills" or "I want to help preserve the environment"? Or do they say to you, "These are the exact things we want to do"? Kelly: The customers with an inclination toward doing a green, sustainable project come to us saying, "We hear you do that. We'd like to talk with you about doing our kitchen remodeling job." In some cases, like with our cabinets, they come to us and say, "We specifically want your cabinets because we think they're neat." And consumers are becoming more educated because they're seeing a lot of these products. They understand what low-VOC paints are. We have an active utility here, Portland General Electric, that has what they call their Earth Advantage program. When the big utility promotes sustainability and emphasizes that in their booth at trade shows and consumer shows, that makes a big difference. HousingZone: What resources does your firm use as far as educating yourselves and your clients on new products or processes or technologies? Kelly: We take the green building industry publications - Environmental Building News - those kinds of magazines. We go to the U.S. Green Building Conference. We participate in the Earth Advantage program pretty heavily. We've sent people through education programs there. So we get a lot of exposure to green building products that way. When we have people come in to put on presentations about products, which we do every few weeks, we put that through a green filter. The word gets out that you're interested, and then you also get a lot of people coming at you, to say the least. HousingZone: One of the things discussed on your Web site is your involvement with The Natural Step. Could you talk about that a little? Kelly: The Natural Step is an organization that has had a big influence on us and really was kind of inspirational in some of the things we've done. Essentially, it's a business-oriented environmental group that has a set of "system conditions" that provide us a framework of how we as human beings should approach the environment. For me and for our company, it has been an intellectual framework by which we approach environmental issues. At the time we got involved with it, what inspired me was that here was a way to look at environmental issues in an organized fashion. One important underlying concept was that you just can't be totally, perfectly environmentally responsible overnight. It's a real long-term investment. Take a step at a time. Another underlying thing about The Natural Step is that it says, "Try to take these ideas and implement them into your everyday decision-making." A lot of people will say, "Gee, I'm environmentally responsible because I recycle" or "because I do deconstruction on a job" or something like that. Well, it's a lot more complex than that. Really, to have an environmentally responsible company, you want to have environmental responsibility built into the culture of the organization so that when you decide to purchase something, part of the framework of the decision-making is, "What's the impact on the environment? How can we do this in a smarter way?" The other great thing about The Natural Step is that it has a pretty strong chapter here in Oregon and a pretty strong membership, so you get a lot of people who are interested in the same things -- who are mutually supportive -- that you end up doing business with, as well as getting moral support. HousingZone: What criteria do you use when deciding on products? Are there two or three points on which you do not compromise? Kelly: First of all, we do not use products that aren't deemed green. In anything like this, you can get too radical. Life cycle. What the product is made of. The Natural Step says, "Don't take things out of the earth and make them into chemicals that then go into the environment unnaturally." That's a layperson's way of putting it. So, products that off-gas versus products that are inert. Products that have a long life cycle versus products that have short ones. Certainly, energy efficiency is a big piece of the whole sustainable/green thing, so that involves design as well as construction techniques and practices. Utilizing daylight, solar. I guess those are the important ones. HousingZone: What about installation? Are there differences as far as installing one of these products? Kelly: In some cases there might be some differences in techniques. But in general, no. What's really neat about the remodeling industry and/or new home construction is that it doesn't take a lot to be a bit more responsible about sustainability. It isn't rocket science. If you really want to get extreme, it does get complicated in terms of money and time. We built the first LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design]-certified residential building on the West Coast - that's our showroom on the other side of town. When we did that - we started planning it 4 1/2 years ago - it took a lot of extra time and effort. But we also learned a lot. HousingZone: What advice would you give to remodelers looking into incorporating green practices or products in their business? Kelly: I would begin by just learning more through seminars. It depends on what market they're in, whether there's a lot of markets, in fact, that have fairly significant green programs through their utilities, like we do. I'd consider going to the U.S. Green Building Council and the NAHB's program. They both have national meetings. I would suggest to most remodelers to just be thoughtful and weave it into what they already offer. It doesn't have to be anything huge. Just gain some knowledge. HousingZone: And it will help their business? Kelly: I think it will. HousingZone: They're just adding one more piece to the puzzle. Kelly: It's like one more arrow in the quiver of being successful in the remodeling business. I just can't imagine that these issues won't become more important in all markets. A lot of remodelers will say, "You know, Tom, that's important in Portland, Oregon, but it's not important in" whatever town they might be from. It is a change and a movement that is pervasively going through the building industry across the country. And if remodelers don't gain some knowledge and become able to communicate at least the basics, they might get left behind. |
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